FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE: “AGONY” (Take 1)

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Aug 102011
 

(Today we have not one but two reviews of the just-released album, Agony, by Fleshgod Apocalypse. Israel Flanders turns in this one.)

This is the very image and sound of death approaching you.

Let’s get something straight from the get-go:  This is a no-holds-barred, no-messing-around, no-nonsense, non-stop symphonic blitzkrieg of insurmountable proportions that may very well top The Monolith Deathcult’s legendary sophomore album Triumvirate.

Yes.  I just said it.

If you’re looking for ham-fisted forced diversity, get the fuck out.  If you’re looking for pretentious “boundary breaking” and lots of pretty, clean vocal sections to make it feel “sophisticated,” I highly suggest you turn in your brutal-ass war-bringer club membership card.  This is metal, in all of its epitomizing glory.

There are only three ingredients here: guitars tuned to B, copious amounts of blazing speed, and brutality with the heft and weight of a bag full of sledgehammers being flung at you by by an iron golem out of the most badass of fantasy realms.  Did I forget the orchestra?  You know why I didn’t include it as an ingredient?   Orchestras are brutal.  Got a problem with that concept?  Didn’t think so. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

BE STILL MY BEATING HEART: DECAPITATED, DECREPIT BIRTH, AND FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE ON TOUR!

 Metal News  27 Responses »
Aug 032011
 

I just saw the news about a new tour beginning at the end of September, and I was so excited it nearly gave me heart failure. Our friends at MetalSucks are sponsoring the 2011 CARNIVAL IS FOREVER NORTH AMERICAN TOUR, headlined by Decapitated and including Decrepit Birth, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Rings of Saturn, and The Haarp Machine.

For my tastes, that is just a stupendously strong line-up. Though I haven’t yet heard The Haarp Machine, I will now hunt down their music with interest, and as for the rest of the bands, well I’m not going to make reference to boners or cum because that would be inconsistent with my previously expressed opinions on the use of such words in metal writing. I will just say that something wet has happened and I am unable to stand up.

After the jump you can see the schedule. I believe it is a fine schedule, because it includes a stop in Seattle. Continue reading »

SUMMER SLAUGHTER HIGHLIGHTS (YEAH, IT’S ALL ABOUT FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE)

 Concert Reviews  28 Responses »
Jul 282011
 

On Tuesday of this week, my two NCS co-founders and I, plus other friends, attended the SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour stop in Seattle at a venue called The King Kat Theater. The doors opened at around 2:30 and the show went on until something like 11:30. I’d seen many of the bands before, the exceptions being Within the Ruins, Oceano, Powerglove, Six Feet Under — and the band I wanted to see most of all, Fleshgod Apocalypse.

When something is blatantly obvious, it’s best just to admit it. So yes, I admit, I’m a Fleshgod Apocalypse pimp. I’m talkin’ about the kind of BIG PIMPIN‘ that Jay-Z had in mind. I pimp FA at every fuckin’ opportunity I get here at NCS. So, it will come as no surprise that although I found something to like about most of the performances I saw, the highlight of the tour for me was FA’s set (followed closely by a skull-collapsing performance from Dying Fetus). I even got to meet three of the guys in FA and bore them with conversation after they played!

I also took a shitload of amateurish photos of FA’s performance, including the one up above and about two dozen more (the best of a sorry lot) that I’ve posted after the jump. But before getting to that, I have a few awards to hand out (also after the jump). And at the end, I’ve got a link to an audio stream that just appeared today for a new song from FA’s forthcoming album (it’s called “The Egoism”). Continue reading »

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE FULL-ALBUM PREVIEWS NOW AVAILABLE; SEE NCS BANNER SUBHEADING

 Metal News  42 Responses »
Jul 252011
 

Let’s see, this makes today’s fifth post, so it will be brief. You can now go to iTunes (at least in the U.S.) and hear 1:30 previews of each song on the new album (Agony) from Fleshgod Apocalypse. Yes, a minute and a half from each track, including the iTunes bonus track called “Heartwork”.

For the world at large, less than two weeks remain before the arrival of the official August 9 album release date. I, on the other hand, am now less than 24 hours away from getting my very own physical copy, because FA is selling these little jewels at their SUMMER SLAUGHTER merch table, and SUMMER SLAUGHTER will be in Seattle tomorrow, and I will be there.

It’s a good thing I am being brief, because brevity prevents me from becoming even more obnoxious.

P.S. For those of you who have been wading through all my many posts today from the beginning, you might be interested to see this comment left by a fan of Blastanus on the band’s Facebook page about our review of the new album: “naulan kantaan, vitun hyvä lätty :)”  Not understanding Finnish, I used Google Translate, which provided this rendition of the comment in English: “nail on the head, fucking good pancake :)”

P.P.S. The chance to write a headline like this doesn’t come around very often, but some lucky bastard at Blabbermouth penned this one a few minutes ago: “MEGADETH’S ELLEFSON: ‘I Miss Physically Being Able To Hold A 12-Inch In My Hand'”. And no, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the accompanying video interview to find out what he was talking about. Laughing too hard.

NEW FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE VIDEO VIOLATED ME

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  22 Responses »
Jul 182011
 

I’ve been away from my computer all day. I blame my fucking day job. I just got back, and almost the first thing I see is a press release advising that the almighty Fleshgod Apocalypse have released a video for a song from their new album called “The Violation”. It was directed by Salvatore Perrone. I wasted no time in watching it.

I feel violated now. Man, it’s a good feeling. I would like to be violated again.

The song is more overtly symphonic than anything on Mafia, the band’s last release. It includes extravagant, high-flung flights of clean singing from Paulo Rossi that are even more prominent than his contributions on Mafia. It’s also a head-exploding rush of blowtorch death metal. It’s all of that — a combination that Fleshgod Apocalypse pulls off triumphantly, and uniquely. I fucking loved it.

The video is a head-kick to watch, too. Check it out after the jump — and then be on the lookout for FA’s appearance on the SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour, which begins tomorrow. Continue reading »

HOLY SHIT! NEW FREE SONGS FROM VADER AND FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
Jul 042011
 

I shit you not. This has to be the mother of all happy coincidences.

Four days ago we featured a video update from Fleshgod Apocalypse in one of our posts as a teaser to their appearance on this year’s edition of the SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour, and included the news that the band intended to play new songs from their next album on the tour.

Then, the next day we featured a new video of Vader performing in Germany on June 25 and included the news that Nuclear Blast planned to begin streaming a new Vader song on July 15.

And now, Nuclear Blast Europe has just made new songs from each band available for free download! And finally, my slow-as-molasses wireless data card decided to speed up enough that I could actually download the two songs without waiting all day for it to finish. Both of them will blow the top of your head right off into the stratosphere.  (more after the jump, including streams of the songs and the download links . . .) Continue reading »

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE: SUMMER SLAUGHTER TOUR UPDATE

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Jun 302011
 

Yes, yes, yes, Your Honor: I plead guilty to the charge of  Fleshgod Apocalypse sycophancy in the third degree. It’s true that whenever I see something that’s FA-related, I have a nearly irresistible urge to post about it on NCS. And when the “something” concerns a chance, finally, to see them perform live right here in The Emerald City, the urge is not just nearly irresistible, it’s completely irresistible.

And so it is that I’m embedding here at NCS the just-released video update from FA about the forthcoming SUMMER SLAUGHTER tour of North America in which they will be participating. It’s entirely possible I would have posted this even if it had only showed the dudes sitting around scratching themselves and picking their noses. However, it includes clips of the band rehearsing the song “Thru Our Scars”, which is just a fucken fantastic song.

It also includes a few words of tour promotion by frontman Tommaso Riccardi. I smiled at the fact that the only other band on the tour that he mentions is Dying Fetus. It’s certainly not an intentional slight directed at any of the other bands, just interesting that it’s the one that popped into his head. Allow me to say, Fuck Yeah!

We’ve posted before about the tour schedule, but this link provides the most up-to-date info. So, Your Honor, go ahead and pass sentence. I am unrepentant and do not request mercy.

EYE-CATCHERS: FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, GHOST BRIGADE, TRIALS, MINUSHUMAN, AND THE CLEANSING

 Eye-Catchers  10 Responses »
Jun 252011
 

In this EYE-CATCHERS series we usually pick music to sample from bands we’ve never heard before based solely on their album art. It’s an ongoing experiment, testing the illogical hypothesis that if the artwork is cool, the music will be, too. Today, we’re continuing that experiment with three bands — Trials (U.S.), Minushuman (France), and The Cleansing (Denmark) — all of whom have new albums on the way.

But we just couldn’t resist also featuring eye-catching artwork from forthcoming albums by two bands we already know and like very much — Fleshgod Apocalypse and Ghost Brigade. We don’t yet have any new music from those albums to toss your way, so we’ll play some older tunes from both bands as a reminder about why we care about what they’re up to. Yes, lots of bands to be covered in this post — so we’ll keep the verbiage short and focus on the art and the music.

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE

You knew we were going to feature the album art for FA’s next release, Agony, which is due on August 9 from Nuclear Blast. Along with Bury Your Dead (whose 2009 line-up change spurred the start of this site), they’ve sort of become the unofficial NCS “house band” (which means we wished they lived at our house so they could play for us all the time). The only reason we’re a couple days late in posting about it was so we could finish up the rest of this long EYE-CATCHERS installment. It’s a hell of an album cover, don’t you think? Credit goes to the very talented Marco Hassman. Continue reading »

SIGNINGS

 Metal News  12 Responses »
May 062011
 

Earlier this week, our bro BadWolf put up a note of well-deserved congratulations to Battlecross on their signing with the formidable Metal Blade label. Yesterday, we saw news of two other signings by bands we dig mightily — Fleshgod Apocalypse and Malfeitor. We’re mightily happy about that, especially because of the accompanying confirmation that we’ll have albums from both bands in our not-so-distant future.

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE

On April 5, our favorite Italian metal band, Fleshgod Apocalypse, put up this note on their Facebook page: “We are really hard at work on a brand new album for a summer release. Ideally during Summer Slaughter Festival in North America. We are seeking a new home as well.” As of yesterday, they found their new home, with the announcement of a worldwide deal with Nuclear Blast Records. It’s worth remembering that these dudes have only produced two releases — Oracles (2009) and the Mafia EP (2010) — and yet they’ve ridden those attention-grabbing albums to considerable critical and popular acclaim, paving the way for this auspicious label signing.

And yes, yesterday’s announcement included the confirmation that  the band are currently wrapping up work on a second full-length album with an expected release date “sometime around this year’s Summer Slaughter Tour.” Which is just fuckin’ peachy. Truth be told, this band’s appearance on Summer Slaughter is what I’m most anticipating from that tour. It will be especially sweet to hear them play songs from a brand new album. Congratulazioni a Fleshgod Apocalypse!  (more after the jump . . . including tunes) Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT: SPECIAL COVERS EDITION

 THE SYNN REPORT  17 Responses »
Apr 292011
 

(I swear this was a coincidence. I wrote a post that went up earlier today on metal covers based on a single by Anachronaeon we received yesterday, and then our UK contributor Andy Synn delivered this special edition of THE SYNN REPORT about . . . covers. This is the kind of occurrence that sends me back to the dictionary once again to figure out the difference between synchronicity and serenditpity. Or maybe it’s both.)

Covers are a strange breed of song – they’re the equivalent of a parallel universe, an alternate history, a What If? Comic, an adaptation of your favourite book starring an unexpected actor, a Shakespeare play set in an average American high school…

Seriously though, they have a huge amount of potential, both to be intriguingly inventive and woefully horrendous. Their success (or lack thereof) depends on many factors, but mainly on the song-choice itself – is it a natural fit for the band? Do they have the intelligence to re-work it in a distinctive manner? Or is it simply enough to tear through it in their own inimitable style, making few changes, but relying on sheer power to see them through?

I have chosen 15 artists who have produced some of my own personal favourite covers, showcasing a variety of approaches, some fully traditional takes on the original, others totally reworked variations. If there’s one thing that these covers show however, it is the subtle threads that inter-link all different sub-genres of rock and metal, which allow bands to re-work them organically. (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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